Arts in America; A Good Place to Shoot Movies? Why, That's Baltimore

Novelists often explore what they know best, and the same sometimes applies to filmmakers. At least it does for Barry Levinson, who has made his hometown, Baltimore, a star in many of his feature films.

This fall, shooting is scheduled to begin on his latest, ''Liberty Heights,'' a story of how race, religion and class distinctions in the same neighborhood once mixed in ways the nation has sometimes forgotten. The idea, Mr. Levinson said in an interview, grew out an anti-Semitic remark he read in a review of his film ''Sphere,'' with Dustin Hoffman.

''It was so ignorant,'' Mr. Levinson said of a comment about Mr. Hoffman's role. ''But it started me thinking about the time when all these things began to bubble up -- not with hatred but out of complete ignorance and a lack of understanding about people who are different.''

''Liberty Heights'' is set in a west-side neighborhood that Mr. Levinson, who is 56, knew growing up. It follows three other films he has shot in Baltimore -- ''Diner,'' ''Tin Men'' and ''Avalon.''

As a body of work, along with his acclaimed television series, ''Homicide: Life on the Streets,'' they have celebrated the idiosyncrasies of a city that many of its residents nonetheless regard as less sophisticated than its big-city neighbors, Washington and Philadelphia.

At the same time, projects by Mr. Levinson and Baltimore's other cinematic son, John Waters, have helped create a dense community of grips, carpenters, electricians, makeup artists and actors who are ever ready for the next film or television project shot in the city or nearby counties. And there have been scores of them in recent years as production companies have found that Maryland's varied architecture and geography are easily adaptable to whatever the script requires.

''We've been discovered,'' said Michael B. Styer, director of the Maryland Film Office, which promotes the state to production companies and coordinates their efforts with local government agencies. ''We have all the right ingredients. We're cheaper here, and there's less hassle.''

In recent years, all or part of nearly 60 movies, television series and pilots from virtually every major studio have been shot in and around Baltimore. These projects include ''Broadcast News,'' ''Sleepless in Seattle,'' ''True Lies'' and ''Patriot Games.''

By Mr. Styer's estimate, projects shot in Maryland over the last 10 years alone have added $500 million to the state economy.

Few people have done more to keep Baltimore in films and local people working on them than Mr. Levinson, who lives in Los Angeles, and Mr. Waters, who still lives not far from the Baltimore suburb where he grew up.

As directors, they have embraced the city and its style, including the nasal accent that twists vowels and mangles words, leaving them almost unintelligible to outsiders. For example, ''cheern for them Ay's'' is the parochial way of expressing support for the local baseball team, the Orioles -- or O's.

In Mr. Waters's case, every film he has ever made has been set in Baltimore, from early underground ventures like ''Hag in a Black Leather Jacket,'' ''Mondo Trasho'' and ''Pink Flamingos,'' the themes of which you really don't want to know, to his more ambitious films, including ''Hairspray,'' ''Serial Mom'' and his latest, ''Pecker,'' which is scheduled for release this fall.

''John has never filmed anywhere else,'' said Steve Yeager, a Waters protege who recently produced a feature-length Baltimore-based documentary, ''Divine Trash.'' It is a biographical account of a transvestite actor known as Divine, a star of many of Mr. Waters's films.

One star of ''Pecker'' is the working-class neighborhood of Hampden, one of the quirkier parts of the city. Mr. Yeager said that Mr. Waters's production designer, Vince Peranio, had found a house for the film in which the residents had extended their carpeting two feet up each wall.

Mr. Yeager said he had asked Mr. Peranio: ''How did you get them to do that? John will love it.''

Mr. Peranio said, ''I didn't touch the place.''

Mr. Levinson, whose production company is called Baltimore Pictures, has relied less on satirical elements of the city than allusions to actual people and places. The diner in ''Diner'' was a real place, the Hilltop Diner on Reisterstown Road, a favorite family restaurant in the 1950's. Siding salesman were known locally as tin men.

To a Baltimorean, ''Avalon,'' a film about generational change, conjured up images of the old Avalon movie theater, which was on the edge of a once-proud neighborhood that could not hold onto its middle class. ''Homicide'' is based on a book about the homicide squad of the Baltimore Police Department.

''I'm not unlike a novelist who writes about people and places that resonate within,'' Mr. Levinson said. ''So I thought I needed to be that way, with the rhythms, the language, the characters, the architecture. It's all part of the design. I can't separate it out.''

He said he knows Mr. Waters only casually but shares his love for the city, even if they express it in contrasting ways.

''He literally works in a different part of the city,'' Mr. Levinson said, referring to Mr. Waters's preference for its kitsch and kink. ''So his sensitivity comes from another place. We may show two aspects of Baltimore, but that just proves how diverse the city is.''